[OOC: this post was originally written by Wildfire. With his permission, I took his incredible vision and expanded upon it with 1000 more words. I want to personally thank him for allowing me to do so, and hope all enjoy my new interpretation of Kit's emotions within the context.]

Maccabeus went rigid, a gasp of pain escaping from his lips before his unconscious small form fell to the bed beside Kit. The girl only stared at the object still held firm in his unknowing hand, the blue crystal.

Kit was in another world again, with the vision of that crystal at the center of it. To her it looked so much like one of the sand dollars her father had once brought back from a journey abroad. Those journeys were rare for him, and she not only looked forward to the hug she would get upon his return but the promised gift he would bestow as well. The five sand dollars from one trip had been her favorite.

The next day, she and her mother had dipped the sand dollars in colored water and decorated the walls of her bedroom for Harvestide, pressing the bottoms to almost every bare spot of wall. Neither of them had any idea on whether her father would approve of such decoration. The memory of the smile he had upon seeing the room was one of ultimate joy. It had since gotten her through some rough times in her life. But now, as she stared at this vibrant blue crystal before her, the memory was a shadow behind it, and at first something about that was very foreboding. She could only stare in growing concern, but with a wakening of sorts quickly realized that it was due not to repulsion of the crystal, but a need to hold it. She was drawn to it like that of a mother to her newborn child. And it in turn seemed to sense her and was calling to her for comfort.

Meanwhile Wolf, an unknowing spectator to the situation at hand, but recognizer of Mahiya's power that had been growing within his friend, growled as Maccabeus lost that power and hit the mattress. He whined thinking the lapse perhaps temporary, but as his friend continued to lay lifeless, he could not help but yelp in concern.

The sound of his bark shocked the bloodied Kit from her absent stare.

Kit looked about her as if seeing the room for the very first time. Her mind was not yet awakened, as it had been ravaged by the recent events and was now only functioning on an instinctive level. Memory had not yet caught up to recognition as she gazed slowly about at the devastating scene. As her eyes passed slowly about the destruction, they returned to the crystal once again. With a slight concern in her brow, she reached for the gnome's hand which was just out of her own arm's length, so she stretched her ruined body towards him.

The pain of a thousand daggers knifed into her back, but with a sharp intake of breath and the release of excruciating hot tears she continued to reach. She fought against the pain to reach what was hers. Vision narrowed and blackened around the edges, the crystal again becoming the only thing view, as she came once again close to unconsciousness. The singular thought of her child was stronger than the overwhelming pain writhing through her body.

With eyes clenched shut she reached forward across the last hand length of space and slipped her petite fingers between the small forfeiting ones of the gnome. Even before her fingers touched the surface of the crystal she knew what she would sense. At the familiar but warm touch she collapsed back onto the bed, her arm still outstretched towards the unconscious Maccabeus. The crystal now in her own hand.

A desperate voice, her voice, cut into her mind.

'Hide me, quick!'

Without being able to moving any other part of her body, which had begun to yet again convulse, Kit instinctively folded her arm underneath her. Her open hand held the warm, lightly pulsating crystal, to her chest.

'You can't let them find me.' The now calming voice said within a pocket of her mind.

Like her wakened conscious Kit's own voice was lost, not having the strength to fully come forth to the reality of the apothecary. But deep within her mind she fought to understand. This other voice in her head, that intimated her speech and vocal sound, was not her own, it was not driven by her own thoughts. But as she strived to understand it within the fog of her mind the lack of her inner voice's existence suddenly shocked her back into the full reality.

Her inner voice, the one that controlled the fear was gone, but not only that, the aspect of that fear was now utterly gone. She lifted her head above the pillow and her eyes worked back and forth madly as she sought the voice and it's charge within her mind.

The enormity of the epiphany stuck her with such force that silent tears streamed madly and all at once from her weakened eyes.

She wasn't afraid anymore. The noise of the static of that fear was gone, as was the voice that controlled it. The constant weight of it had been lifted and for the first time since its creation, and in what had seemed to be an eternity of the burden, she finally felt liberated. The recognition of her situation caught up to her at that moment of joy, and although she was naked, covered in blood, in pain, and in all probability looked ghastly each new second that passed was filled with incredible joy.

Despite the pain ravaging her back, and the feeling that she would slip back into the black of unawareness, Kit smiled through the tears without voice.

Ashe roused from under the pile of rubble that had been upon him. Wolf, who had run over to the bedside of his unconscious friend, looked towards the noise Ashe created but stood vigilant.

"Oh that hurt," Ashe said in a pained voice. With a contorted face Ashe stood up and rubbed the wound on head. He looked over to where his shelves of herbs had been and groaned. "...but that, that hurts more."

As he limped to her bed, Kit, now more aware, glanced towards him. She could clearly see that Ashe was in a great deal of pain, and gave the man a look of incredible guilt and sympathy. She saw that the wound on his head was fairly deep, with skin at the bottom so disjointed that it flapped slightly over his sunken right eye allowing blood to river onto his face. Both eyes were bloodshot and there were large purple sacs beneath them. Many places within his clothes were torn and ruined, and he was covered in dust from head to toe. Kit's smile did not leave her, for she was grateful that he was even alive.

"You look horrible," she said, trying to make a quip.

Ashe smiled and without a word came to her side. 'The worst was over', he thought.

"Roll over onto your tummy," he said with a dry, cracked and broken voice. He had placed his hands on the bedside palms up, the gnome laying on it to his right, and was flicking his fingers in a curling motion.

Again her voice entered her head, it was loud, abrupt and obnoxious, as if it weren't used to social mannerisms learned during the process of language development. 'Don't do it. Remember what happened before with Markell!'

Kit did, in fact, remember that, only she knew well that Ashe wouldn't harm her. Ignoring her child, and with a slight reluctance she endured the pain and flipped over onto her front. The almost forgotten humility happy in doing so. She put her head on the pillow once more as Ashe chanted in a whisper in that strange language. As Ashe's warms hands touched the sides of the massive wound, Kit felt a tingle and then a consuming warmth filled her entire body from head to toe. Her pain, endured for what had seemed an eternity, vanished altogether just like her fear.

Ashe leaned over to grab Maccabeus but Wolf wouldn't have it. He let out a warning growl and bore his teeth. Too tired to argue and convinced that the gnome was in no immediate danger, Ashe instead grabbed Kit's hand and said, "Let's get you to a fresh bed."

'No! Don't leave me here alone!' Kit's mental voice cried out in distress again, the sharpness of the uncontrolled voice making her wince.

The pain that she had endured, of which she had thought would leave a permanent shadow inedably etched into the grain of her soul and the undercurrent of her flesh, had surrendered and slithered away rapidly from her.

"Could I have...something to cover myself with?" Kit asked Ashe in a small voice, not willing to slide off her tummy and expose herself again.

Ashe nodded.

As he began to step away in order to go behind the ruined wall for a fresh sheet he sensed it. How could he not? His attunement to his resurrected abilities was now flayed raw about him, so it easily picked up on the psychic residue upon the unconscious gnome. He immediately recognized the imprint of Kit's power emanating off him like heat off of a tea kettle.

"Oh my Maccabeus, I am so sorry," Ashe thought as he hesitated by the bed.

Ashe knew the power of that imprint would have to take its course, and although Maccabeus was in no danger of permanent harm, he knew the gnome would have to endure that imprint until it washed away from him. Ashe suspected that Kit had expelled her fear into the crystal, and if this little man was the conduit for that journey, his mind had shut down so as to deal with imprint at full value.

Maccabeus would soon be in tune with Kit's history and emotions more than anyone on this earth. At least for awhile, Ashe thought, remembering his own experience with this situation.

As Kit lay her head on the pillow, too tired to watch Ashe, he lowered his eyes to Wolf. The beast was now too worried to whine or growl and merely ignored Ashe while he licked his friend's dangling hand.

"Let me move him Wolf," he said to him soothingly and in Mahiya's tongue.

To his surprise Wolf shuffled aside.

Ashe returned to the bed and gently scooped his arms under the small figure.

"I am really sorry Maccabeus, I had not intended you to be caught between them," he whispered in the gnome's ear. He didn't want Kit to feel responsible but something inside him compelled him to at least voice an apology.

He placed the gnome on the other clean bed, the one he had thought would be for Kit. As he let him go he sensed how strongly the power was clinging to him, and could only wonder at how the gnome's psyche was handling the memories of the young girl.

"No better man to handle this consequence," Ashe thought, "for I have yet to meet a gnome more ready for this type of experience."

He leaned closer to the bed so as to be out of Kit's earshot, and whispered again to the man lost in his own mind.

"Psi-crystals are not normally formed this way for Seers, Brother of Mahiya" he said as he stroked Maccabeus' hair back and out of his face. Still whispering, he continued his narration to the unconscious gnome, "as you will come to realize, this was all part of a series of events that started so very long ago...and still have yet to end. Rest easy my friend, the sharp visions you see now, will hopefully become ghosts of experience later."

"Is he going to be alright?" Kit asked raising her head. Ashe turned to see that she had watched the entire exchange with concern.

"He's going to be fine lass," Ashe said returning to her and lifting his hand to her to cup her cheek. "I will get you a sheet, one moment," and he left for the back room of the devastated apothecary.

When he returned Kit was unsuccessfully trying to sit up, despite her modesty.

"What are you doing?" Ashe asked harshly.

"I can't stay, I should..." was all Kit got out before slipping into the beginning of a feinting spell.

With one hand Ashe caught her before she tumbled to the floor, even as his other hand swished the sheet around her back.

"You have no pain but you also have no strength or stamina child," he said sternly as he wrapped her semi-conscious form in the sheet. "You are not going anywhere."

She slumped in his arms while he lifted her slight form and carried her to his own bed in the backroom. It was the only one that was now usable. He noted that the girl still retained a firm grasp of the psi-crystal though. "Good my young mother, very good," he thought.

With one last statement to Wolf, "Watch over him and wake me if anything changes," he left the room with her.

Wolf watched him go, and then looked about the Master's den. The sleeping places were covered in blood, bone fragments and skin. They in turn were surrounded with rubble and debris from the devastated wall of Ashe's den. Wolf was sad for them.

After Ashe left, the front of the apothecary was quiet although still disheveled and dilapidated. Wolf surveyed the devastated room for a moment, then climbed upon Maccabeus's bed and lay down protectively next to his little brother.